Annual Report - Northern Health

Our Achievements cont’dImprove consumer experience strategic Goal 3As a health service provider, our consumers are the focus of our work at Northern Health. Meeting the healthcare needs of our diverse community now and into the future is fundamental to our success. We aim to providehigh quality and effective care that ensures the consumer experience of our services is as positive as possible.Improving time spent on direct patient careIn late 2010 Northern Health commenced a trial of theProductive Ward: Releasing Time to Care program. Theprogram, developed by the UK’s National Health Service, hasproven successful at empowering nursing teams across the UKto improve the way they work and increase the time they spendwith patients. Northern Health’s trial was conducted in Unit Cand the Maternity and Women’s Health Unit at The NorthernHospital, and the Geriatric and Evaluation Management Unit atBroadmeadows Health Service.Project teams received intensive training and completed threefoundation modules which aimed to make the ward morestructured and organised. Initiatives included ‘Patient Statusat a Glance’ boards to ensure staff know what every patientis waiting for ‘Knowing How You Are Doing’ boards to provideward staff with weekly updates on their performance againstpatient safety and access indicators and the ‘Well OrganisedWard’ to reduce the time spent trying to find equipmentand consumables. Pre and post audits indicate significantachievements have been made:• Unit C staff now spend 24 per cent more time providingdirect patient care by reducing the time spent onadministrative tasks;• Maternity staff now spend 25 per cent more time providingdirect patient care by reducing the time spent in motion(walking around the ward to find things/people) andmanaging patient flow; and• The Geriatric and Evaluation Management unit has reducedmedication dispensing time from 44 minutes to 14 minutes.Feedback from participating wards has been extremely positiveand although the formal trial has finished, the participatingwards continue to rollout additional modules focused onimproving medicines usage, admission and discharge planning,and meals management. A final evaluation of the trial in late2012 will help assess opportunities to rollout the program inother wards.Award winning Transcultural and LanguageServicesNorthern Health’s Transcultural & Language Services (TALS)team were proud recipients of the 2011 National ExcellenceAward for Outstanding Contribution to the Translating &Interpreting Industry. The award is the highest recognition inthe industry and was awarded by the Australian Institute ofInterpreters and Translators and reflects Northern Health’slongstanding commitment to cultural competency across itscampuses.Demand for Northern Health’s TALS services continues to growwith approximately 3500 patients per month or 875 patientsper week using an interpreter when dealing with NorthernHealth. The TALS team comprises 17 staff who are accreditedto speak Arabic, Turkish, Italian, Greek, Assyrian & Chaldean,Macedonian, Vietnamese, and Chinese.Working to bridge the health gap in Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander healthThe Northern Health Aboriginal Support Unit continues towork to build knowledge of local health services within thegrowing northern suburbs indigenous community. In March, TheNorthern Hospital, in partnership with Plenty Valley CommunityHealth, hosted a diabetes education workshop designed tohelp educate the ageing indigenous population about the riskof developing complications associated with diabetes. Theworkshop was an interactive session where participants wereinvited to share personal stories and had the opportunity to gettheir eyes, feet, blood pressure and blood readings checked byqualified staff.In another partnership with Plenty Valley Community Health,Northern Health is working to educate local Aboriginal womenabout the need for pap screens with free workshops and tests.Other key activities for the Northern Health Aboriginal SupportUnit included:• Participation in the Improving the Pathways to Hospital Careproject, led by St Vincent’s Health which will identify existingand implement new pathways of care for ATSI patients;• A joint project facilitated by the Northern Health AboriginalAdvisory Committee between Northern Health, theVictorian Aboriginal Health Service and the Northern AreaMental Health Service (NAMHS) which will result in theemployment by NAMHS of an Aboriginal mental healthclinician and a Koori Mental Health Liaison Officer;• Development of an Aboriginal employment strategy underthe Karreeta Yirramboi state government strategy which willbe implemented in late 2012; and• Development of an Aboriginal maternity program, which willfocus on supporting Aboriginal women, which been fundedthrough the regional Closing the Health Gap strategy andwill commence shortly.26 annual report Northern Health 11/12